** Reply to note from tweeters at u.washington.edu Tue, 12 Aug 1997 00:08:36 PDT


> Saturday I was hiking up around Blue Lake, about 10+ miles or so west of Baker
> Lake around the 4,000+' elevation (NW Washington, in the Cascade mountains,
> south of Mt. Baker). Heading east back down the gravel forest service road
> towards Baker Lake (Baker Lake was about 7 miles to the east), a female blue (?)
> grouse crossed the road and went up the hillside with her two chicks. A very
> beautiful sight to watch. It was very mottled/molting looking, so it was hard
> for me to tell if it was a blue grouse or maybe a spruce grouse? I watched it
> at close range with my binoculars for about 15 minutes. I settled on a blue
> grouse because of the pale terminal band, with broken barring, on the wedgey
> tail. The grouse's mottling was mostly brown/some black/whitish (very little
> reddish-brown coloring). I also didn't really see any grayish coloring. But
> since I am unfamiliar with habitat and the different grouse, I'm wondering if
> someone could tell me a little about this. Are blue grouse around there? Where
> are spruce grouse usually found? The only grouse I've seen in Western Washington
> is a lot of ruffed grouse, and it definitely wasn't that. If there are some
> habitat limitations, that would take care of my questions.

Anyone familiar with both species would never get them mixed up: Blues are a
noticeably bigger bird than Spruce Grouse. Here in central BC this time of year,
when one climbs a mountain you usually find Ruffeds in the mixed woods at the bottom
of the mountain, Spruce in the conifers halfway up, Blues in the sub-alpine
krumholtz (with sizeable chicks this time of year), and White-tailed Ptarmigan in
the alpine. Yes, the base color of a *male* Blue Grouse is a bluish to slate-gray
whereas that of a female tends more toward medium brownish-gray. Female Spruce
Grouse in any plumage usually show a most beautiful complicated barred and mottled
pattern on the underparts which is unique among our grouse species. I would tend to
favor Blue Grouse for your mystery bird due to the fact that you didn't comment on
the barring of the underparts.

- Jack



Jack Bowling
Prince George, BC
jcbowling at mindlink.bc.ca